Make an estimate in two minutes

An estimate is your considered opinion of the cost, given what you know now. A quote is a firm offer. Send an estimate when the scope depends on what you find, which covers most repair and renovation work, and a quote when you can see the whole job.

That is between you and the customer, so write the tolerance down rather than leaving it open. Many trades state a percentage above which they will come back for approval, commonly around 10%. Pick a figure you can actually hold. When the final bill differs covers getting approval before the cost, not after.

Yes. Write the range in the description of the line item and put the higher figure in the rate, so the total stays honest. Say what decides which end of the range applies, and roughly when you will know. A range with a reason attached reads as considered; one without reads as a guess. How to write an estimate has a worked example.

No. There is no sign-up, no login and no trial, and nothing is held back behind one. The page works the first time you open it and the hundredth. Since nothing you type is stored anywhere, there would be nothing for an account to hold. The privacy page sets out what that means in practice.

Yes. Click the logo box at the top left of the sheet and choose an image. Resize it to around 600 pixels wide first: a photo straight off a phone can be several megabytes, and that weight goes into your saved file and any PDF you export. The logo is stored inside the sheet, so it comes back with the estimate next time you open it.

Use Save as file to write a small .json file to your own disk, then Open a saved file to bring it back with everything in place, logo included. That file is also the quickest way to build a template: fill in your own details once, save it, and open that copy each time. The estimate template guide covers what to fix and what to leave blank.

Choose Print or save PDF, then pick Save as PDF as the destination in your browser's print dialogue. The file is produced on your own machine and never passes through a server. Two settings decide how it looks: background graphics on, and scale at 100%. Turning an invoice into a PDF explains both, and they behave the same on every sheet here.

Every currency in common use. The picker opens on the one that matches your country, worked out from your browser's own locale rather than by looking anything up over the network. Change it whenever you like and the symbol follows through to every figure on the estimate. If you bill across a border, invoicing a client in another currency covers the decisions worth making first.

No. There is no server behind this page. Client names, prices, notes and your logo stay in the browser tab while it is open and go when you close it, which is why saving to a file matters. The privacy page sets out exactly what does and does not happen, including the one external request the site still makes.

Generally not, but say so on the document itself. Put your assumptions and what would change the figure in the notes, give the estimate a date it stops being valid, and state your tolerance. An estimate that reads like a firm price will be treated as one, whatever the heading says. How to write an estimate has the wording.

As soon as the scope is firm enough that you would stand behind the price. A quote settles the number; an estimate only indicates it. If you are unsure, an estimate with clear assumptions is safer than a quote you may have to renegotiate. The quote page is set up for the firm version.

Only as far as you said it could. State a tolerance on the estimate, get written approval for anything above it, and show the variance as its own line on the invoice with the approval named. Three documents in sequence settle most disputes: the estimate, the approval, the bill.